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Unlocking North Korean songs on a karaoke machine
Karaoke is a uniting past time for North and South Korea, with noraebang commonly available throughout Pyongyang, and Video CDs long a ubiquitous commodity. It comes as little surprise then, that karaoke machines have made their way to Pyongyang. In this post, I take a look at the Tianchi v700, a Chinese karaoke machine that…
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Ministry of Public Health Launches a Website
North Korea’s Ministry of Public Health has opened a website on the global Internet. The site, at www.moph.gov.kp, is fairly basic in its content and was first reported by Yonhap News. It’s impossible to tell when the site first appeared. While articles on the site are dated from April 2019, it’s relatively trival to back-date…
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North Korean IT engineers working on artificial intelligence in China – UN report
Five IT workers from a company affiliated with North Korea’s Academy of National Defense Science began working at a Chinese construction company in 2019 on artificial intelligence products, according to the latest United Nations Panel of Experts report. The report said that three software developers and two hardware developers from “Nam Dae Cheon Trade Co.…
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Supreme People’s Assembly adopts a law on distance education
North Korea’s distance education system was one of the key topics discussed at last week’s session of the Supreme People’s Assembly with delegates passing a new law on tele-education. Details of the law haven’t yet been announced but it’s prominent inclusion as the second agenda item underlines the importance of the system that has been…
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Red Star 4 appears in a workplace learning system
The newest version of North Korea’s home-grown Linux operating system has been put to use in a new terminal system for use in study rooms that exist at many companies and institutions. Red Star OS version 4 (붉은별 4.0) is used in the system that was produced by Achim Computer (아침콤퓨터합영회사), according to the North…
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KCTV appears on Chinese satellite
Korean Central Television has appeared on a Chinese telecommunications satellite after technical problems hit its existing satellite. KCTV has been relayed on Chinasat-12 since mid-January, which is about a month after Bangkok-based Thaicom reported a “technical incident” on its Thaicom-5 satellite. Thaicom-5 is one of the most important TV satellites for South East Asia and…
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More YouTube channels deleted, DPRK Today unavailable
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for North Korean propaganda on the Internet. In early-January, YouTube deleted several accounts that carried largely unedited material from Korean Central Television, and this week the website of DPRK Today, which is one of the country’s major Internet propaganda sites, has been offline. It’s unclear if the two…
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Pyongyang Crypto Conference Site Goes Blank
The website of the 2020 Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference went blank on Friday, two days after a news report said United Nations sanctions experts are poised to warn people not to attend the event. The conference is organized by the Korean Friendship Association, a Spain-based group of overseas supporters of North Korea, and attendance…
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Can Science and Technology Be a Silver Bullet for the North Korean Economy?
One of the main themes to come out of Kim Jong Un’s speech to the Workers’ Party plenary in late December is a new emphasis on science and technology. The focus isn’t a surprise. North Korea has been pursuing science and technology as a way to improve its economy for years, but now with no…
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Microsoft grabs domain names used by suspected North Korean hackers
Microsoft has taken control of 50 Internet domain names used by hackers to trick people into divulging their user names and passwords and to plant malware on their machines. The hackers are suspected of being linked to North Korean groups, the company said on Monday. It grabbed domain names such as “office365-us[.]org” and “pw-change[.]com” as…